I started second and battled Silverkeg and some others for the lead, and I lead at the end of the first lap. After that I had one or two spins, and then I dropped back to around 6th. At the end of lap 4 my tyres were finished, which meant I had to pit every 3 laps and I ended up doing 8 stops. From around laps 8 to 11 I was towards the back with Steve/Damon. On lap 11 my tyres were dead halfway into the lap and I had numerous spins as I crawled back to the pit lane, it took me 6 minutes to complete the lap. After that I was 3 minutes of the lead and all alone for another 50 minutes. I finish last, a minute and a half off the lead. The performance completely constrasted my last Collantine Cup race, where I stopped once to win it.

My race result said I was 9th, but apprently Chops did race when at the start, it appeared he wasn’t there at all, so I was 10th I think.

It’s a shame I finished so far off everyone, but at least I know for the future that I should never do more than 3 laps on soft tyres on Gran Turismo 5.

My race was eventful and rewarding to say the least! I started 7th and was up to 4th by T1 i followed someone round to the first chicane and was then up 3rd and chasing down 2nd. I don’t quite remember the rest but i know i went roughly 2nd – 10th – 4th – 8th – 3rd – 1st – 8th – 2nd – 1st – 4th -1st! Ill skip out the middle of the race but i was yo-yoing up and down the field for most of the race even in the last 3 laps, which is where ill pick up from. After a spin on Lap 20 i was down in 8th but by Lap 22 i was 2nd which is where i tracked ShyGuy from until the last lap where i past in on the run to T1 i was defending hard up to the right hander after the 2nd chicane Shyguy then bumped me and i was down to 4th but i passed 3rd place before the next corner, David and Ed then collided which put Ed in the barrier and me on the grass in avoidance. Me and David then dualed through the Porshe Curves and i lined him up into the chicane complex. I switched back on the exit and out dragged him to the line to win by 0.053! It was an amazing, hectic and most importantly fun race which properly is what kept me going when i was in the lower realms. And finally a big shout to Steve and Damon, who made this all possible and run smoothly :)

@olliekart I bumped you? Sorry, I didn’t feel or hear any bump, otherwise I would have waited, sorry about that.

I started near the back, and ended up spinning before I even got to turn 1, not sure what happened I think I got spun around by someone although I may have turned across someone, im not sure, I couldn’t see much. Anyway during the race I was near the back for the start of it, got near the front mid race dropped back again then in the last stint I was battling Ollie for first. Also midish race I remember I was battling with Steve/Damon (Not sure why was driving then) but into Indianapolis I was kinda doing 240ish mph and didn’t realise I was going so fast and ended up hitting Steve/Damon “With a force of a thousand suns” To quote steve. But I waited and let them back past, then they spun.

Last lap, I got the cut back out of the final chicane on ollie, meaning I lead the start of the last lap, but he was back ahead by turn 1. Down the mulsane straight I only just managed to keep up with ollie even in the slipstream (I was just sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow in a straight line, like last year). But into the hairpiny thing, at the time during the race, I thought Ollie had out broke him self as I heard no contact, but it appears I hit him, again sorry! But into Indianapolis I got hit by ed, he let me back past afterwards, but by the time I got back past I was 6th. By the time I got to the porsche curves I got past silverkeg (who had gone off) and I got up the inside of spud mid porshce curver but went a bit wide so I slowed down to allow him back past (although he didn’t seem to want to? lol) so in the end I got 4th place.

The race was a massive struggle for me. For whatever reason my car had massive oversteer, so I couldn’t drive anywhere near the limit. Still, the race was going very well for me, and I was looking on for a podium or win, but then made a mistake at Indianapolis on the final lap when in 2nd.

For that mistake, I’m really sorry ShyGuy. I actually felt really gutted after the race that I potentially ruined your chance of a race win. I had high adrenalin from getting into 2nd and then defending the cars behind me down that straight, and then braked slightly too late, saw that you had braked early, lost control of the car and hit you.

The highlight of the race for me was the battle with Chopsman in the 2nd stint in particular. We had a brilliant battle for many laps, and traded places many times with clean and respectful racing.

Absolutely agree with ed, the first half of the race was really intense, fun racing, and it was really enjoyable to drive like that for so long with such minimal contact. Definitely the most enjoyable race i’ve had in a very long time.

The end of the race was quite interesting, my strategy of doing 5 laps on hard tyres every stint was the quickest option, I think, but it ended up putting me behind everybody else when it came to my last 4 lap stint.
So I put on the medium tyres and was quite a bit quicker than the leading pack, though I re-joined about 30 seconds behind. I caught that up pretty quickly on the new tyres, but when I caught everyone it was rather difficult work overtaking, with slightly laggy internet connection making the cars jump around a little on the straight. I don’t really remember a lot of what happened on the last lap, I think just about everything that could happen did! It was a bit of a fluke that I ended up second out of all of that, it was amazing how after 24 laps we all ended up so close.

I’m greatly looking forward to doing it all again next year (in fact, I wouldn’t mind doing some more races a bit sooner than that, if anyone is interested. 700PP race at Spa, for instance?). Thanks again to Damon and Steve for organising the race :)

The game decided to put me on pole, which I knew I wouldn’t hold for long. Was surprised that I held on until the Mulsanne. Had a few spins in first stint then by the Third lap my tyres had completely died. I was already 2 minutes behind. I plugged away for a while and before I knew it I was back in first. I remember having a great battle with Spud and Sahil? at night in the middle of the race. I was pitting every three laps, on an identical strategy to David_A. It was working well and I thought I had a shot at a good result until the final stint.

Entering the penultimate lap was crazy, the top 8* (Seven for me, more later) were all so close. I was progressing up the field until I spun entering indianapolis (a common thing throughout my race). I was still close on the final lap but had a couple more spins and again my tyres died. I had to crawl around the Porsche curves where Steve/Damon passed me and then Sahil passed as I lost control and drove into the pits on the last lap :/ Disappointing finish but was great fun nonetheless and I was super pleased to be fighting at the front.

*I don’t know if anyone else had this problem, but for me @Chops wasn’t even in the race at all. I’m really sorry if in the race I ever cut you off or hit you but you were literally not there. I was really surprised to hear you got a podium because my results showed Shyguy had got third, Spud forth etc.
There is no Jaguar in my replay :(

Was there anyone that didn’t lead at one point in that race :D Can’t wait to race you all again whether it be another GT5 race or the Collantine Cup ;)

OK, this thing. Had a pretty busy weekend, so it’s a miracle this went ahead without any problems. I did the OP, Steve did the rest, so it’s to his credit that it even worked because I really neglected this whole thing. Not very good organisation at all!

The race was weird and over very quickly. I made Steve start (hadn’t played GT5 in months!) to avoid any big crashes, before taking over at the first round of stops on lap 3 (I think). We ran the whole race on hard tyres, each time doing 3 lap stints. Steve did try one 4 lap stint, but the tyres died and he lost about 2 minutes in the process!

My first stint was a bit of a disaster. I had no idea what I was doing or what any of the buttons on Steve’s wheel did, and I think I spun about 10 times. I lost a minute or two, but by the end of the stint, I was keeping it on the road, albeit at a very slow pace. We alternated at each stop (with me concentrating on a video I was editing while Steve drove, so I wasn’t really able to follow the race) for a while before at around half-distance we did double stints. After we’d both done our double stints (mine was last) I gave the car to Steve and he drove the last 3 laps.

But I really ruined any chance of Steve mounting a challenge. I lost a huge amount of time, which he made up for in his stints, and when we were just about to catch back up to the pack, Steve did that extra lap that cost us more time. We were about 1 and a half minutes off the lead, and I was trying to make some time up in my last stints before Steve finished it for us. But I wasn’t very fast and the gap was pretty much static.

Steve’s final stint was fun. He had to make up 90 seconds in 3 laps and I was a little bit amazed by how fast he was going without crashing! He managed to get within about 15 seconds by the time the flag dropped, I believe, so a valiant effort!

I could have made that a lot easier. And as a consequence of my driving, we had no idea what happened at the front!